Genre: Heist/Thriller/Period/Romance
Premise: Set in 1962, a male and female jewel thief must put a team together to take down a sinister German business mogul who made his untold riches during World War 2.
About: This newest version of Oceans is being spearheaded by Margot Robbie, who is said to be the creative leader of the direction and feel of the project. She took it to director Jay Roach. And, I’m assuming, Robbie chummed up with Gosling on Barbie, where she asked him to be in Oceans as well. Robbie says she was more interested in the romantic aspects of the story than the heist stuff. I’ve reviewed one other script from newcomer Carrie Solomon, a Black List script titled, “My Boyfriend’s Wedding.” I found that script to be a bit messy.
Writer: Carrie Solomon
Details: A very reader-unfriendly 129 pages
Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.
Are they the new Audrey Hepburn and Carey Grant?
Cause after Barbie, they’re doing this!
It’s a smart play to make an Oceans movie right now. The number of genres that have the box office potential to risk a theatrical release is shrinking by the month. But this is one of the remaining few that could work – the sexy heist genre.
It’s a simple but powerful formula. Get a couple of hot movie stars, dress them up to look even hotter, write a script that’s dripping with sexual tension, and VOILA. A hundred fifty million domestic buckaroos.
UNLESS…
Unless the script is bad. Let’s (hopefully) learn that that’s not the case.
It’s 1962. 30 year-old Elsie Brunner, one of the most beautiful women in the world, is at a mansion party trying to steal some really expensive earrings. Once she finds the bedroom where the safe is, she sees 37 year-old safe-cracker Jack Mason. Jack is one of the most handsome men in the world. He also wants these earrings.
After Jack steals the earrings, the two of them (who instantly hate each other) must pretend to be a couple when others from the party find them. They use this ruse to escape, flirt, separate, and for Jack to sadly realize, afterwards, that Ellie took the earrings from him.
A few months later they’re in Monte Carlo because some super-baron named Aristotle Onassis has a jewel worth more than 50 Mona Lisas. It’s here where we learn about Jack’s dark soldier past and his experiences in the war, where the evil Aristotle wiped out his entire team!
That’s the real reason Jack wants the diamond – to get back at him! Elsie wants to join him, not because she has a personal beef with Aristotle: “Because I’m all out of mercy for pathetic men with no concern for what’s right. Their breed has wreaked enough havoc.” Put that through the 2023 movie dialogue translator and you get: TOXIC MASCULINITY
Which means getting the diamond isn’t enough. They want to destroy this man as well. Aristotle wants to buy the Hotel de Paris to stabilize his shaky financial portfolio. But he currently doesn’t have enough money. His plan to remedy this? He’s rigged the Monaco Grand Prix so that his car will win. He’ll bet untold gobs of money on his car, win a small fortune, and use that to buy the Hotel.
Therefore, if they can stop him from winning the race AND steal his diamond, they’ll basically bankrupt him and ruin his life. Of course, if they’re going to pull this off, they need a team. To do so, they’ve decided to use a half-retro Oceans approach (all men) a half-modern approach (all women) and come up with the first Oceans team that has an equal amount of men and women. And we’re off! Oh wait, that’s horse racing. “Ready, Set, GO!”
Let’s start with the good.
I love the setting here. I knew nothing about this script when I opened it. So I wondered, “How are they going to make this different? Why do I want to watch another group of people who like to make a lot of jokey quips with one another try and steal something?” I just didn’t see anything they could do that would make the concept feel fresh.
But the second I learned the script was going to take place in Monte Carlo in 1962, I started reading with a lot more interest. It goes to show that SETTING ALONE can really freshen up a stale concept. Especially with these franchises, since they all feel the same. I remember they did the same thing with X-Men: First Class, and that ended up being one of my favorite superhero movies.
I’ve also realized that movies set in the 1960s give your characters backstory access to World War 2. That war has the potential to come up with some of the most interesting backstories imaginable. So there’s a lot to play with. And they do that here with both Jack and Aristotle.
Although I’m all for peace on earth, the fact that there hasn’t been a big war in the last 75 years has left a lot of writers with nothing to work with on the backstory side. Sure, you can use the Afghanistan War but it doesn’t exactly hold the same weight as a character who participated in the battle for Iwo Jima.
That rich texture can shape characters in really interesting ways and this script is proof of that. I found Jack to be quite generic for the first 25 pages. But the second we learn about his World War 2 roots, along with his connection to Aristotle, I saw him in a whole new light.
Also, a rule I have with heist scripts is that the heist needs to have something in it that isn’t just about money. Money is boring in these types of movies. Who really cares if our heroes score 5 million dollars? Or 50 million? Or 100 million? It’s just monopoly money to a moviegoer. So you want to be creative – find other ways to make the heist fun.
Adding a car race, of all things, is something I haven’t seen in a heist film before. You have to win a race to complete the heist? Count me in!
But I didn’t enjoy everything here. If I have to read another sexy heist team-up where the opening scene has the guy steal something, only for the guy and the girl to go their separate ways afterwards, and the guy realizes that the girl stole the object from him, usually during a kiss, I’m going to sauté myself at 450 degrees in an air-fryer. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I’ve read this scene in 75 different scripts.
C’mon. This is your first scene. You have to show us why you’re a real writer and not just another movie fan who got into screenwriting. Give us something different. Even if it’s just the guy discreetly stealing from the girl! Why is it, in all 75 of these scripts, that the girl steals from the guy? It just shows how unoriginal we all are. Or how lazy we are. Dig a little deeper. Try a little harder. Declare to yourself, “I’m going to give the world an opening scene that they’ve never seen before and I’m going to rewrite it 100 times if I have to to get there.”
Luckily, after that opening, the writing got a lot better. I don’t remember the last time the setting of a movie did so much of the heavy lifting for a screenplay. This 1962 Monte Carlo setting turns another run-of-the-mil heist film into something potentially special.
I’ve never been the biggest fan of the Ocean’s movies, especially as they’ve only gotten worse with each new entry. But I honestly think this could be the best of the series. It may not have the charm and star power of that original remake (what a funny phrase to type), but it has a way more interesting plot, a more creative heist, and the romanticism of the 1960s at its back. This movie could be the real deal.
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[xx] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: From this point on, when I am imagining a potential project, I’m going to imagine what the concept looks like in the 1990s, 1980s, 70s, 60s, 50s, 40s, to see if any of those options is better. Take, for example, the logline we were kicking around yesterday: “A disgraced airline pilot turned plane crash investigator is hired by a mysterious outfit to investigate a recent crash in a remote part of Siberia, only to learn, when he gets there, that the crashed vehicle is alien.” Imagine that scenario set in 1957. Or 1943. Or 1969. Each of those movies is completely different.
